When someone asked if I could take a look at a 60 effect laser disco light, I was a bit cynical about what it would be like. After stalling for a bit I ordered one from eBay, which came through very quickly in an alarmingly small box.
It turns out to be one of the most exciting laser products I've taken apart in a while. Largely due to the fact that it does have 30 different effects multiplied by a simple red laser projection of the effect and a further diffracted green laser version.
The result is a continuous effect variation with the extra effect of animation of many of the effects just by the movement of the diffraction grating section past the lasers.
It's very bright, which looks great, but doesn't bode well for eye safety or longevity of the green laser module. The current consumption is quite low for the scale of the effect, potentially allowing a long run time on a USB power bank.
The circuit board is clean, modular and functional, with a hidden bonus charger built in for the option of using an internal lithium cell for stand alone operation. It appears they do sell them with the lithium cells fitted.
There's also a mottled red, green, blue LED that provides a wash of light, but it's more of a gimmick. As with many of these devices there's a simple audio detector that will step through the LED colours, alternate the lasers or rather annoyingly, strobe the output.
I'd say that this light is actually worth getting just to see the morphing patterns of the diffraction wheel. It's a very clever effect.
To find these on eBay the keywords are - 60 patterns laser usb
Target price is around £€$20.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
It turns out to be one of the most exciting laser products I've taken apart in a while. Largely due to the fact that it does have 30 different effects multiplied by a simple red laser projection of the effect and a further diffracted green laser version.
The result is a continuous effect variation with the extra effect of animation of many of the effects just by the movement of the diffraction grating section past the lasers.
It's very bright, which looks great, but doesn't bode well for eye safety or longevity of the green laser module. The current consumption is quite low for the scale of the effect, potentially allowing a long run time on a USB power bank.
The circuit board is clean, modular and functional, with a hidden bonus charger built in for the option of using an internal lithium cell for stand alone operation. It appears they do sell them with the lithium cells fitted.
There's also a mottled red, green, blue LED that provides a wash of light, but it's more of a gimmick. As with many of these devices there's a simple audio detector that will step through the LED colours, alternate the lasers or rather annoyingly, strobe the output.
I'd say that this light is actually worth getting just to see the morphing patterns of the diffraction wheel. It's a very clever effect.
To find these on eBay the keywords are - 60 patterns laser usb
Target price is around £€$20.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Camera behind the disk?
I want one just for the lasers, I'm old enough that I remember even a simple red laser pointer being to expensive to buy and green ones when they came out I've always wanted. About to pull some blue ray lasers and see what happens when I stick them on a dollar store pointer.
One day I'll own a green, red and blue. Don't care if they "burn" but I would like to see the beam if possible.
Cheers brother, used a rechargeable disposable vape for rechargeable laser pointer. Next is replacing small cell for 18650!
🙂
How much?
Great video!
I have been looking for a review on this laser for several days and your review is the best on YouTube. I have an idea. I want to add a PWM to the motor to slow it down. What do you think about it?
Seals, clubbing.
One thing that astonishes me is that the patterns, although moving from one side to the other in front of the laser diodes, rotate around their centre when projected and then fade to the next pattern on the disk as they move away. I remember cheap disco light effects I used to have that had a conventional light source, a lens, a gobo disk and a colour disk. The projected images clearly showed the lateral movement relative to the light source of the current colour, resulting in a moving color border and sometimes showing two halves of adjacent gobo shapes. In comparison, using diffraction gratings with lasers seems to have this very cool side effect of much better transitions and even introducing a central rotation of the 'gobos'. I'm guessing this has to do with the inherent properties of diffraction although I can't really get my head around it and wasn't aware that diffraction could be used to transform lateral movement into rotation.
Also I'm a little surprised not to find (m)any other comments on this (admittedly I haven't read all 682 of them at the time).
I had a laser effect projector like this several years back, and I've wanted to make my own laser light projector, but I can't seem to find anywhere that just sells those disks. I can't seem to find them from any of the related search terms that I could think of, I've checked Amazon, AliExpress, Ebay
I have one of those lights
Dont break the seals.
Too late you killed the seals.
You did a great teardown but didnt say if the diffraction grating was glass or plastic or if it was scratched / impressed or printed.
Nice video though.
Well done & happy new year.
You should point it at your trees outside.
i had to drill a couple of extra holes in the case SIDE, near the mic location, as the mic pickup is not facing the pre-made holes. This makes the mic incredibly insensitive with no other way of adjusting it. the extra 3 (1mm) holes did the trick.
If your love laser is still lasing after 8 hours you need to see a doctor immediately.
Thanks for the teardown Clive! So I bought myself one of these, I'm thinking about DMX hacking it via a arduino and integrating into my garden lightshow.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the purpose of the film the casing for the green laser module? The red doesn't have this. Trying it with and without doesn't appear to make much difference, all the diffraction is as a result of the internal spinny disc. Maybe it's to offer some level of protection to eyesight?
When do you suppose we'll be seeing BLUE lasers in items like this? That would be very nice!
It looks like a 1970 night club